Hermetic and Alchemical Writings (Coelum Philosophorum, Aurora of the Philosophers, Concerning the Nature of Things, ...)

Hence, too, it happens that no evil can occur to the rational spirit through the aggravation of the body, but it is conserved in a good essence and nature, just as it can easily be understood that it will be conserved with all its faculties, such as sight, hearing, taste, etc., in due proportion. The process of conservation, then, which we have already mentioned, we describe in two wa)'s, one by means of simples, the other by arcana. Yet, we would not wish to separate altogether simples from arcana, but, on the contrary, join them together, since simples of themselves have such marvel-

A Book concerning Long Life. iig lous virtues and powers that some of them conserve for forty years, others for a hundred, and this, so far as conservation is concerned, we place on a par with the powers of the arcana. The essence of such simples which secure so long a life we consider in no way inferior to an arcanum. Take, for instance, the leaves of the daura, which prevent those who use it from dying for a hundred and twenty years. Its virtues we describe in the treatise on the Nature of Things, and here, for the most part, we preserve silence about them on the account of the incredulity of men. In the same way the flower of the secta croa brings a hundred years to those who use it, whether they be of lesser or longer age. There are many more of these no less worthy of regard which we do not set down here. The arcana, it is true, have greater powers . of conservation than the simples we have named, because they fortify and nourish the radical humours more than the simples do, just as flesh and herbs nourish men, but in unequal degrees, since one has more power than the other, but Nature derives satisfaction from this rather than from that, and partakes of it with greater advantage. We give the recipe, then, for conservation during two or three periods of existence, for men or for women, as follows : — Take of cut flowers §j. ; of leaves of the daura Sv. ; of essence of gold and of pearls each gss. ; of the quintessence of safi"ron, chelidony, and balm, each 5 v. Mix them all together according to the artistic method, and keep as a compound for use, in glass vessels as above. This medicine is also sufficient to cure and to drive out any accidental diseases which may subsequently occur in the subject.

Now we have to speak of mental afi"ections and assign to each its special remedy. Mental diseases, either those which proceed from the mind or come into the mind from without, may occur in different ways, as we have before said. And though we cannot ascertain exactly the origin and nature of these latter, since they are invisible to our eyes in their seats, and consequently in their powers, still we speak only of their effects which we can see, and of the operations which they shew us. On these we base our practical treatment, saying that their eff'ects are produced in the spirit of the mind (as we have elsewhere remarked), as our mind is merged in them. We neither wish nor are able to hinder the course of the heavenly bodies, yet we have the power of resisting them, just as a strong wall can be assailed with bombardment and with engines. The sun impresses its influence on a stone. If that stone be thrown into the water, the sun can no longer bring its powers to bear on it, and thus the stone is preserved. Similarly, influence can enter a man in two ways : in one, when it is impressed upon him by ideas. This cannot be hindered, as the grass in the meadows cannot vegetate and grow without the sun. The cause of this we set down in another place. In like manner, there is one kind of influence which conserves and sustains us as nutriment does the body. Such is the influence of the constellations. The other is accidental, and this does us injury by hindering the former so that it cannot exercise its operations upon us. We know this of planets and the like.

We adopt measures of preservation against them so that their effects may have no power upon us. Such methods of conservation against the planets consist of rings and images specially constructed against their influences. What we have said on the subject of imaginations should be carefully noted. The rings of the planets have power of defending us from accidents, and so affect long life. But they are not satisfactory, for several reasons. And here is something to be known, namely, that the mental influence should be directed to some other object. For example, if Mars should be disposed to destroy me, and there be a mental inclination from him in my mind, which might induce mental disease, I construct my homunculus, that the operation of Mars may be directed to this image, and I may get off safely. It is easier to affect the homunculus, and so the planet is able to work its will more gently and without resistance. It takes the easier course, and leaves the more difficult one. The material is the same by means of the opening that has been made. To this material Mars was inclined with the view of injuring my nature ; but he begins to operate on that which is easier, is satisfied therewith, and remains therein. Other reasons may be assigned for this, but we do not put them forward, since they have no bearing on the conservation of long life.

In this way there is produced a conservation of the mind, that is to say, the heavenly bodies are distorted towards something less resistent, so that the mind may be freed from the heavy yoke of those heavenly bodies by means of which death is often inflicted. Against incantations, too, we would prescribe something, so that a long life may not be taken away by means of these. Remedies of this kind we have mentioned in several places, not as conservations, but simply for a cure of incantations. But the same is to be understood concerning them as in the case of the malefic stars. Incantations, that is, are to be guarded against in the same way as mental influences transferred to a homunculus. A similar operation holds good in its reversal to that which binds our minds and mental organs and our beings, the seat whereof is in the mind, as we remark in our treatise on Incantations. It must be directed to some other subject, and not to that which we have from the stars, but to its own incantation in the following manner : I construct a homunculus of wax to serve my purpose, and this I put in its place. Then, whatever attempt is made against me by way of incantation will be fulfilled on this image. For that proceeds from my mind, and the incantation from his mind, so that the minds meet, and on neither side is any harm done, or any effect produced. Under this form we have made clear the mode of resisting and preventing incantations by means of images.

So, too, imagination destroys an imagination directed against us. It may happen that I am being killed by the imagination of another. Such an imagination, which should be fulfilled in me, should be diverted elsewhere, lest health and long life be taken from me thereby. This I illustrate by the following example. If anyone feels great enmity against me, so as continually to wish for my death, and is not an incantator, but still a most persistent enemy, and if I do not know this, but his evil disposition is hidden from me, I, on the other hand, settle my mind in the greatest possible repose, by this method of protection being hostile to none, hurting none. By means of this piety, such great envy which is directed against me cannot be carried out ; for piety is the principal and most consummate means of preservation against bad imaginations which can possibly be devised. Estimation, in like manner, which is in ourselves, may operate in the same way. When I think more of myself than my reason warrants, such estimation is a submerging of my reason, so that I may lose my reason by the inordinate mixture of self-esteem, as we have said elsewhere on the subject of estimation. Against such estimations as these the best method of conservation is not to impose more on the reason than it can bear, which is the way in which such estimations are fulfilled. Here is another method of conservation. For instance, where we make false estimates of God, a subject which surpasses our reason, we betake ourselves to a homunculus directed towards the stars, which homunculus is of the same nature as ourselves, and so our speculation, which might corrupt us, passes to the homunculus. For there is no resistance to such speculations being fulfilled without loss, by a subdivision of the senses existing in me and in the homunculus, with a difference of perfection and imperfection.-

By means of estimations and imaginations many superstitions are fulfilled, which are not impressions, or incantations, or estimations, but simply superstitions capable of being understood by a similar example. I suppose myself imbued with the superstition that when I hear crows chatter on my roof I esteem it the sign of some one's death (there are many similar examples which need not be quoted). This superstition may make me ill myself, or kill my sick friend, the cause whereof I set down in my treatise on Superstitions. My method of conservation is this : that I regard such chattering as natural, and that it does not operate according to the foolish idea of men and of myself. By this means my superstition is destroyed, for it is rendered doubtful when I attribute it to my folly. Nothing destroys superstitions more thoroughly than considering them to be follies. Thus all harm is taken out of them. It is the consensus that leads to action, and this consensus is at once removed if I think of my own simplicity and the folly of such empty credulity. And this does not happen only in the case of crows, but with many other things, which it is not necessary, nor would be useful, to rehearse in a treatise on long life. Enough has been said on the subject of conservations.

As to the fact of our being hard to understand, that happens only to those who understand neither us nor Nature herself. Yet is what we say of some moment. For those who do not understand us on the subject of long life, we decline to teach them more plainly. For those who have any depth, we are conscious that we have written of our processes at sufficient length, and have disclosed them with ample clearness. Concerning the regimen of food and drink, we will only set down so much as bears on long life, reserving the rest to be treated in another place and by another method. First, it should be known that foods ought to be prepared according to a process, just as medicine, so that they may expel all the superfluities of humours which lie hid and grow in the body. These humours, by means of conservation through food and drink, are completely removed. Next, it is necessary to know that the cures of all internal diseases are accelerated and promoted by suitable medicines, and also by Quintessences. As to the origin of diseases and medicines, we say nothing about these matters here, because they are extant in many parts of our Physics. This only we say, that for a long life the following is the best regimen : moderate diet. We do not give this in detail, because it is well known to every physician. One thing we will add, that food ought to be separated from all its impurity, as we teach in our treatise on the separation of the elements.

The use of such separated food with moderate diet exhibits a wonderful sustentation and conservation of life ; it restores the flesh and blood, so that no disease can do harm to the body through external foods, which is not the case with other foods and drinks. The use of such separation of foods for the foundation of a long life we set down for those who wish to live long ; and we do this for many reasons, not necessary to specify here. This we do afiirm here, that this is a regimen by which the complexions of the blood and the flesh are nourished. Nevertheless, conservation belongs to the vital spirit and its humour. Thus we believe we have said enough on the regimen necessary for a long life.

We describe the separations of foods and drinks in the treatise in our Archidoxies on the Separations of the Elements, the pure from the impure. In like manner, in the book on Regimen, in the same place, we set down what may be best and most conveniently adopted for a long life. We do not repeat here what we have written at sufficient length elsewhere. What air, earth, and elements are best, we will indicate in the same manner. In the element of fire no watery disease can arise, and vice versa. So, in like manner, we must understand of the earth and the air. Whatever lives in the fire is free from other infirmities except those of fire. What has to be considered, then, and assumed necessarily for practice, is a certain desired equilibrium of elements, wherein long life consists. This is the work of wisdom alone, in which work are comprised the operations of the elements with the perfection of their forces, so that the fire shut up in man shall avail to take away all diseases, drive them out, and keep them at the greatest possible distance. We look upon this work of wisdom as another earthly Paradise, in which no disease could germinate or remain, no venomous animal could dwell or enter, and health could never be destroyed. This we could wish conceded to us by the Lord God, that we might write freely, without the contempt of idiots, what experience has taught us about this work of wisdom. But, on account of those idiots, one has patiently to hold one's tongue with regard to the miracles and marvels of that work of wisdom, wherein is

reserved the earth of the wise. Since, then, I must be silent about this, I determine to describe it only among my secrets, that it may remain buried within me, though without any end of life. Thus far have I written on the subject of Long Life for our own and other disciples who are endowed with a happy and subtle intelligence. Here ends the Book on Long Life.

By Theophrastus, Philosopher and Physician, of Germany, called Paracelsus the Great. FIRST of all we must understand what Restoration and Renovation are ; what those things are which restore and renovate, and also what that is which can be renewed and restored in the creation of things. All minerals, indeed, are thus brought back to youth-, are renovated and restored, so that rusted iron can be again brought back to new iron, and the rust or flower of copper into its copper. So, likewise, minium can be brought into lead, and Saturn into Mercury (or, as others read, the calx of Jupiter into tin). In this place, therefore, renovation and restoration signify that process which brings back a destroyed, or rusted, or consumed substance to its youth and its perfect essence. But still this renovation which we have here introduced cannot be in any way compared to that restoration or renovation which we purpose to expound. For though rust and verdigris are not a metal, still none the less in their essence the essence of the metal has not yet perished or been consumed. So, then, that renovation cannot, in this place, be taken for an explanation of restoration and renovation, because in the human race such rustings and ablutions do not occur ; and hence it is that men do not require a renewal of this kind.

In this manner, if a decrease be understood to happen to an old or decrepit man, like a kind of rust in his substance, then, in like manner, his body will be capable of being brought back from its state of decrepitude to youth, and there is a restoration from any kind of disease to health, but concerning this we have no desire to write at present. This, too, may be accounted a kind of restoration when out of salt, sulphur, and mercury a metal is made naturally. When this perfection is completed and brought to the actual metal, that metal may again return to its three primal elements, so that the salt, sulphur, and mercury again appear as they were at its first generation, insomuch that the metallic element altogether passes away, and there is no longer any metal present. So also it may happen that the matter of the three primal elements may return again to a metal as before, namely, if from the three primal elements of copper, copper be again made, and so on. This, too, in the case of metals is a restoration or renovation, when a kind of regeneration takes place from a metal previously complete into a metal again, perfect and complete. But that is not to be thought of as renovation or restoration if it be referred to man, because we cannot be brought back to our three primal elements, or reduced to our sperm, from which, again, we might be again renovated and restored, as in the case of metals quoted above.

For then we should have the power of improving ourselves by a second generation better than the first was ; even as iron, which is reduced into its three primal elements, and afterwards to silver or gold, and becomes incorruptible by this very process ; or as Saturn, which is again reduced to its mercury, is at length changed to an incorruptible metal. None otherwise should we, too, be able to produce or create from ourselves an incorruptible creature, whereas we have no power to do this. For we lack that primal matter,* and are unable to ^o back, so as to be constituted an irreducible mass, but we must progress as we have begun, and in no way are we able to recover or to possess that out of which we proceeded.

Restoration, then, or renovation, is twofold. One, as applied to metals, we have introduced and made clear. Another, when an old picture is renewed with fresh colours, so that it appears recent and new as it had been before. But we must not, therefore, understand in this place that a new matter is made out of an old one, but that the old picture is so draped that it may appear new. Wherefore, again, this kind of restoration cannot be cited with reference to the restoration and renovation of man. But restoration and renovation must be understood in this way : that man's radical moisture, acting upon and energizing the spirit of life, shall not be diminished or driven back, but rather shall be increased in its powers and pushed forward, as a tree to which aid is given for the production of its flowers and fruits, so that when these drop off and are done with others are again procreated as before. But, although the example here quoted does not in every detail illustrate our theory, nevertheless, it aifords the means for understanding how to promote the radical moisture of life just as we shewed in the case of the tree. We intend renovation and restoration to be understood thus : that they are not produced in the radical moisture,! but in that which is generated from the aforesaid moisture and derives its origin materially and corporeally therefrom. For as a bell made by fusion does not receive its sound from the tone, but from the body, so restoration or renovation does not receive its operation in the spirit of life, but in that which makes this same spirit ; that is to say, the one is material, the other substantial. But when all this substance in which the radical moisture is

• It should be noted that while all things are constituted in the three prime principles, they cannot be separated without the destruction of the simple matter itself; for in separation the virtue of Mercury, of Sulphur, of Salt, vanishes and goes back into the first matter, as may be seen outside the Microcosm, Mercurj being transmuted into soot, Sulphur into oiliness. Salt into alkali, whence it is manifest that the first matter cannot pass into' the ultimate matter in the absence of a mcdmm.~C/iirursia Mngna^ Tract III., Lib. III. t For the conservation of the radical moisture in its proper quality a medicine is required which is also a material humidity, and while this is administered, no disease can be contracted. -De MorUs Metallicis, Lib. II., Tract IV., c. 5. In the same treatise alum is said to contain an elementary humidity against the fire of the Microcosm. present shall have been purified, its tone will be also improved, and the better the tone is the better the body will be. And when we say that the radical moisture proceeds from the body and the members, we understand it in this way, that the radical moisture itself, and that which proceeds from it, are just like the root and the tree, of which the one cannot live or subsist without the other.

Equally must it be understood here that these two things are so intimately united and conjoined as to be incapable of being separated. The radical moisture and the spirit of life,* together with the moisture of life, are in bodies and in limbs, just as in metals is the tone, which is not seen, only heard. For the spirit of life and the radical moisture are truly in bodies. It would be idle, therefore, if we endeavoured to purify it or to renovate the body by its means ; but it is just that the body and the matter which are born and have their origin therewith should be restored and renewed. Hence, it may be gathered that restoration and renovation are transmutations of members existing superfluously in the body ; so that all which proceeds from the body, and not from the radical moisture, falls away, and something new is born in its place, just as we perceive in a tree, from which all the leaves, the flowers, the fruits, and the fungi fall away, and are born again, yet the wood itself is in no respect changed, so as to fall away and be re-born, but it remains. So, too, does the radical moisture remain. This is the life in the body ; and when bodies reject from themselves hair, nails, teeth, and such things, these are presently re-born. This is restoration and renovation, whereby that very thing which should be restored and renovated is restored and renovated.

For every restoration and renovation occurs in superfluities, and in those things which have their origin and are born from the substance. By what method the body is able to be restored and renewed may be sufficiently understood from the demonstrations which we have made, and from the superfluities which do not form excrescences on material effects, as the hair, the teeth, the skin, and the nails ; but are in the body as something in excess, which are not absent from matter or corporeal substances, but remain in their essence as four complexions!

* The spint of life is a spirit situated in all the members of the body, however they may be denominated individually. In all and each of these the said one spirit abides, and it is the sole virtue indifferently of them all. It is that highest and most noble grain whereby all the members have their life. But being extended and diffused it manifests in various ways, according to the variety of its seats. . . . Nevertheless, its potences are one. The virtues which sustain the bones are in no way feebler than those which nourish and fortify the heart, nor do they abound more in the brain than in the marrow, although the opposite may seem to be true. There is the same necessity of the marrow as of the brain, and the virtues of both are the same. A like law prevails through all the members. Some of them may appear to be of greater importance, but, nevertheless, one spirit of life is the moderator, virtue, power, and operation of them all. The spirit of life originates from outside causes or generations, not from those which are natural according to the flesh. While the generation of other things is twofold, that of the spirit is simple. -Z)^ K/r/^wj il/^/w^rt'rwff/. Lib. I., c. I.

t Concerning the four complexions— cholera, blood, melancholy, and phlegm, we would by no means be identified with that opinion which asserts that they are or do derive from the stars or the elements. We do not regard this as true even in the least degree. The principle or beginning of cholera is from bitterness ; melancholy is acidity ; phlegm rises from sweetness for every sweet thing is cold and moist. Blood is from salt ; whatsoever is saline is sanguineous that is, warm and moist. The four complexions, therefore, are acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and saltness. If salt in any man predominate from the ens of the complexion, then is he sanguine ; if bitterness, then he is choleric ; if acidity, he is melancholic ; if sweetness, he is phlegmatic. Thus, therefore, the four complexions exist in the body as in a certain garden, wherein flourish amarissa, polypodium, vitriol, and salt nitre. And all these may coexist in the body, put so, nevertheless, that one alone will pvQvs.il ~ Paramir/tm^ Tract III., c. lo. (otherwise humours), whereof one proceeds from coldness and humidity, which is retained in the whole body, and is born, not having any special place, nor any beginning or initial point from whence it proceeds, as is proved concerning the four complexions. Another springs from the exact contraries of the former, namely, from heat and dryness, which, too, are similarly in the body and have no special abiding place or origin, and also produce liquid. The third is cold and dry, deriving its birth in the same way. The fourth is warm and moist, itself also proceeding as the others did.

And here it must be noted as happening that these four humours* do not all exist in all bodies at all times, but sometimes one only, sometimes two, sometimes three, at other times four. Of them it must be remarked, too, that, in the process of renovation and restoration, they are consumed and expelled, for this reason, that Nature and the life of man are able to exist without them, and stand in no sort of need of them, since they exist only as superfluities, like the dregs in wine, or the froth flowing from it at the time of vintage. Concerning the four complexions thus displaying themselves in man, this, too, is to be noted : that these are not renovated or restored, because they spring from no one of the members, either greater or lesser. Neither are they in the blood, nor in the flesh, nor in anything like these. Nor, again, is it true that the sanguine complexion proceeds from a liver abounding in blood, or the melancholy from the spleen, the choleric from the gall, and the phlegmatic from the brain, and the like ; since the aforesaid members do not supply their complexion to man, but those complexions come at birth itself and last right up to death. These points we do not undertake to discuss in this place, because they are too remote from our text concerning renovation and restoration.

Since, then, no one of the four complexions has its place or origin in the bodies we have spoken of, but exists in the spirit of life and in the radical moisture, complexions cannot be renewed or restored. But when the body shall have been clarified, their nature, too, shall be made clear. In like manner do we point out as foreign to our text the division of complexions according to age, region, and regimen, because no complexions are impressed on a body by these three. It may, indeed, happen that old age brings sadness to bodies, but this is not a complexion. In like manner, the dwelling place may induce phlegm, but the complexion is not on that account phlegmatic. Bile may make one acquire a yellow colour, which need not be discussed here since it is made clear when we treat of the Construction of the Body.f For a division of this kind a special phase of intelligence is required, * There are four humours contained in man— blood in the veins, moisture in the flesh, viscosity in the nerves, grease in the fat. These four have each their natural purpose. —Z>^ f'esie^ cum aifdiiionihts, Lib. II., Tract III. At the same time, the doctrine of the four humours as commonly expounded at his time was rejected by Paracelsus, because it wa-s a thing hard to believe, founded upon faith only, whereas medicine is established, not in faith but in sight, and nothing in such a matter should be accepted upon faith, except the diseases of the soul and eternal salvation. — Faramirum ^ Lib. I., c. I.

t Paracelsus has a treatise on jaundice, which will be found in the first volme of the Geneva folio. As in so many 9ther cases, there is no work which precisely corresponds by its title to that named in the text. since it must be remarked that they are not only humours, but sometimes minerals too, and sometimes corruptions, which all exist as superfluities contrary to Nature and virtue. In like manner it must be said concerning the principal members which resist renovation and restoration, that is to say, in this way, that they do not perceive it, for they do not receive them into themselves, but they take up everything that passes through them, and is prepared with them, just as they take up food,, not a medicament. But wherever by any chance humours or superfluities are produced in them, they would be expelled. So, also, of the other members, too, it must be equally understood, namely, of the bones, the marrows, the brain, the heart, the liver, the lungs, the kidneys, the spleen, the stomach, the intestines, the cartilages, the muscles. And of the blood, too, it should be known that corruption or superfluity exists in it, though it be only an accident. And so equally of the flesh. This accident is, as it were, purged away in the process of renovation and restoration. Not, indeed, that another blood is produced, but that what is depraved is removed from it, and the good is preserved and predominates. The same judgment, too, is passed concerning the flesh.

To explain briefly what are those things that can be restored and renovated : leprosy, falling sickness, mania, pustules, gout in the foot, or in the hand, or in the joints, and other like ailments are removed in renovation and restoration, unless, indeed, it be some disease taking its origin from birth. This will not be removed. But concerning leprosy, or any more severe disease which may exist, it is well to know that it undergoes transmutation in the body, not, indeed, that there is a separation of the pure from the impure, but that the leprosy is converted into health, as copper or iron are transmuted into gold. And no one ought to be staggered by this conversion, for renovation and restoration consume, none otherwise than fire in silver or in gold, its falsities and impurities, and leave it pure. In the same way the falling sickness and gout are taken away; for all things which are in the whole body are forthwith renewed, the blood and the flesh, with the other things which are embraced in it. For, as alkali purifies mercury into the very best silver, so also renovation and restoration transmute the body into a good essence, as has been said above.

Renovation and restoration, then, expel whatever is superfluous and incongruous with Nature in the body, and change all this which Nature does not want, or which was of no account, into something good. In this way it re-establishes everything and causes it to grow again, as we have said above, brings back the entire body to youth, and so on ; for this cause, that nothing can resist those things which are in the nature itself. And now we must see by what method the body is restored and renovated, namely, by the kindling of the renovating and restoring medicament, which it has in the spirit of life and in the radical moisture, by which kindling the operations are prescribed like the burning forces of a nettle. For who is so sagacious that he can investigate rightly forces of this kind when they do not appear to us in natural act, but are sensibly apprehended? In this way, also, renovation and restoration are accessions to Nature produced by forces which we cannot express. This, however, is openly known to us, that every visible thing is cleansed and purified with fire. Nature, indeed, demands that this one process shall be accomplished by fire, and that it shall not be possible by any other means. We understand, therefore, a two-fold fire, a material and an essential fire.* The material fire operates by flame ; the essential by means of the essence and the virtues, like cantharides, burning the skin and raising it in pimples as a very violent fire does ; yet still it is not fire, nor is felt as fire. A flame and a nettle produce the same effect, as we have often said.

It is in like manner certain that renovation and restoration in this way accomplish their operations when they come into the body or are joined in union within it, because a like operation takes place thereupon as is the operation of Saturn or Mars in Mercury, which are cast into the fire with their realgars, and although neither of them is warm or fiery, they are, nevertheless, burnt up like wood, and in the bottom the perfect metal is found which before appeared altogether leprous. And, again, who can altogether trace or investigate how it happens that when a migdalio has been powerfully liquefied by means of vitriol, it becomes copper, in all respects and throughout its entire substance like copper, though before it had no likeness to copper at all. None otherwise must renovation and restoration be thought of by us than that they accomplish their operations like lime, which is extinguished by water, and purifies itself, so that all its powers and acridities are taken away and removed by its essential fire. The renovation and restoration of our nature are none otherwise than in the case of the halcyon, which bird, indeed, is renewed in its own proper nature ; and many other like animals are found which have the power of doing this, of which we have made mention in diff'erent ways in our Archidoxies, and still more in our Secrets, f from which could be quoted more examples were they not too far removed from our text concerning renovation and restoration, where the demonstrations we make come to be understood equally in this place concerning renovation, while we say again and again that we cannot sufficiently know how the fire operates, though we see it consume the wood, because by its excessive heat it overcomes and consumes everything else. But, leaving this, let us betake ourselves in another direction.

Since, then, we have spoken at sufficient length thus far concerning the beginning of renovation and restoration, let us now point out those things which do renovate and restore. We have, indeed, in our Archidoxies taught * Fire in its nature is four-fold, that is, the sun and moon govern one part in water, the second and the third, which are resident in air and earth, are ruled in like manner by the sun and moon, and there is hence conjoined in all creatures that magnetic virtue concerning which there must be nothing more openly spoken, for herein is the knowledge of the labour of Sophia, the mother and fountain of the Magi ; I have said.— Z)e PestUiKite, Tract II., s. v. De vi maptetica inumia in kotnine. t The reader of Paracelsus may not unreasonably be disposed to think that his secrets are synonymous with his whole philosophy. At any rate, there is no individual treatise under this title, 130 The Hennetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus. in writing how to prepare them, and entitled them with their proper names so that they may be known and marked. Now it is our intention to lay down the composition thereof, and first of all the processes. But while we teach concerning simples and arcana, it must be understood that their operations are brought about in different ways. For some are found which violently purge leprosy by means of renovation and restoration, but beyond that touch no other disease ; yet, nevertheless, they are perfect in renovation and restoration. Beyond these, in the distinctions of these kinds of diseases, are the Quintessence, the Magistery, and the Element of Antimony, which purifies the body from leprosy, none otherwise than silver and gold liquefied therein, and in these it leaves no trace of impurity.

In like manner the element of the sun and its quintessence, as also the oil of the same, and aurum potabile, take away leprosy, together with all diseases, renovate and restore. So also the quintessences of hellebore, of chelidony, of balm, of valerian, of saffron, of manna, and of betonia renovate the body, with the exception of those diseases which we have mentioned above, for these they in no wise diminish. The quintessence of pearls, too, or of unions, of smaragdines, sapphires, rubies, granates, jacinths, renovate also the body and bring it to entire perfection. They take away tartareous diseases, as the calculus, gravel, gout in the hands, feet, and joints, together with congelations and coagulations, and similar diseases which arise from tartar. So also the quintessence and magisteries of minerals and of liquids renovate and restore the whole body from any defect, and free it from the falling sickness, syncope, suffocation, and all diseases which happen with a deprivation of the senses, such as mania, vitista, and the like. The magisteries and the essence of tartar and alkali also renovate the body with perfect restoration, take away all abscesses, and remedy the putrefactions and the grossness of the humours.

In like manner, the essences, extractions, and magisteries of the greater drugs renovate and restore the whole body, take away fevers, both quotidian, quartan, chronic, and ephemeral. Likewise the first elements of the submargarites can renew and restore the v/hole body, and remove all diseases from women, with their accidents, and also render mankind fruitful, both the husband and the wife. The same arcana in like manner take away all long-standing and incurable diseases by renovation and restoration of the body to its highest powers. None otherwise, too, the quintessence extracted from balsam renovates and restores the body. It takes away pleurisies and pestilences by its admirable operations and power of perfection. Of this class, too, are many more things which are also enumerated elsewhere, of much greater virtue than can be attributed to them. In these matters, however, it must be understood that the compositions have to be carefully watched. For though there are many of them, still no , The Book concerning Renovation and Restoration. 131 one suffices generally to cure all diseases by itself, but such diseases are to be expelled by the medicaments of renovation. Finally, therefore, we purpose to demonstrate the manner and the practice of our intention, though we may not set down all the processes, for this may not be necessary. He who understands us will perceive the drift of our writings. He who does not understand us is not capable of being taught by our writings, yet none the less we will set down all the processes in sufficient detail.

In truth it would be a heavy task for us to write those things which have been written by many or are already known beforehand. This doctrine cannot be conveyed better than by the first entity, in v/hich there is a singular nature for operating upon the body and transmuting its essence. For that first entity, indeed, is an imperfect compound predestined to a certain end and to corporeal matter. And because it is not perfect it is able to alter everything with which it has been incorporated as Mercury can, v/hich is like a primal imperfect entity, in respect of its own imperfection. Although this be determined and limited, nevertheless it is not changed from imperfection, but still it is limited thereby.

Mercury, also, has the power of renovating the whole body because there is in it a powerfully laxative force, and an alterative as well, which cannot be sufficiently explored. Yet, nevertheless, it is as a v/hole imperfect and useless in its operation, because, so to say, it is mercury, and its first entity should not be predestined into another body. For such as it is itself, such is its perfection. Nevertheless, we speak of a first entity, which is perfect for renovating and restoring the whole body, as is the first entity of gold, and for this reason, because it embraces altogether the spirit of gold and is most subtle, far more subtle, indeed, than the true body itself, that is, than gold. Hence, also, the first entity of the sun, or gold, is penetrable, even as mercury in metals, and does not contain within itself the spirit of salt, whereby it may be coagulated. For the spirit of salt coagulating the first entity takes so much power away that the gold becomes not by a hundredth part so powerful in its effects as its first entity is. In the same way, generous wine coagulated by frost never again returns to its pristine power.

Now, in order that we may speak and write perfectly concerning renovaand restoration, it should be known that the first essence, that is, the first composition of gold which exists as a liquid not yet coagulated, renovates and restores whatever it lays hold upon, not only man, but also all cattle, fruits, herbs, and trees. And this must be understood, just as of the universal form of any metal, which is endowed with far greater virtues than its own metal, seeing that there is in the mineral form the spirit of arsenic and salt of sulphur and of mercury, all of which are lost in the purgation of the metal, the said metal remaining in one essence alone. The very same thing is, in like manner, to be understood concerning the first entity of marchasites, as of antimony, which ought to be known no less than the first entity of gold. In the first entity of antimony, indeed, there exists such a virtue that of itself, by its own special nature, it transmutes everything of which it takes hold, none otherwise than antimony itself does by fire. For the virtue of that same separates from the body everything which is generated by the radical moisture, and altogether renovates the said body from its very foundation ; for its first entity becomes so fixed in that predestination that such an essence proceeds out of it, and goes forth from it as heat does from a fire.

No otherwise must it be understood concerning the first entity of resins. The first entity of sulphur is an entire transmutation of the body into certain renovations and restorations ; and it is so vehement that it tinges all the first entities of metals into its own essence, takes away their operations, reduces them again to their first matter, and afterwards brings them to a perfect and new body. Indeed, the first entity produced from sulphur has such power over the body of man that it renovates all the radical humours in it, in all its places and parts.

In like manner, also, may we speak concerning the first entities of gems, which, indeed, by their primal essence most powerfully reinstate the whole body in its pristine powers, cleanse it from all its impurities, and renovate and restore it none otherwise than the fire changes lead into purest glass. For the first entity of the emerald regenerates and renews itself since it exists from the first as a perfect body. So, too, green marble, which, from its own predestination, has such a nature that it renovates itself from all uncleanness and impurities, and coagulates a second time until it becomes pure. Sometimes it renews itself thus a third and a fourth time, and returns to its youth ; and the oftener it regenerates itself in this way, the purer and more enduring does it become. So far, then, as the virtues of first entities are known to me, these certainly far excel all the rest. So, also, concerning the first entities of salts it should be remarked that, like their spiritual virtues, they are by far greater than in their perfection. Thus, the first entity of vitriol transmutes all white metals into red, and overcomes and masters all the perfections comprehended in them. It renovates and restores all the imperfect bodies of the metals, as tin into its first entity, and again into tin, in which there are more virtues than in the original tin.

In the same manner, it brings back to the radical moisture whatever proceeds from those radical moistures, and renders that same renovation and restoration more perfect, more plentiful, and more full : for nothing else operates so powerfully on the radical moisture. In no way different are the first entities of herbs and trees, which, before they have received their body, that is, their stalk or trunk, are a thousand times more powerful than when incorporated. Even so, the first entity of balm renovates and restores the body far more powerfully than seems possible to be done in natural things. It should be known, that the halcyon is not thus renovated or restored by its own nature, but because its nature is such that it should be nourished and live on first entities in this way : When it eats the bodies of herbs, or of seeds and the like, its stomach, by digestion, reduces them to their first entity, and afterwards, by means of that first entity, it perfects the operations of its own renovation and restoration. For its digestion was by Nature predestined only to first entities, whence it happens that it first of all transmutes all its food and drink into a first entity. On which account, also, it eats those bodies only which regenerate and restore, with which from the very time when it is hatched it is furnished and nourished by the parent-birds. In the meantime, this is its own nature, that after death it is renewed and restored ;

on this account, forsooth, because all these first entities cannot have their progress in the bird whilst it lives, since the life of this bird takes away all the power of those entities by turning them into blood and flesh ; but when it is dead it flourishes according to the annual seasons ; and just as first entities put themselves forth in the earth, thus, in like manner, do they then put themselves forward in the bird itself, and so renovate and restore the dead flesh, which, indeed, in Nature itself is a wonderful argument for its powers and virtues. If these things did not lie open to our eyes, they would be incredible, though they should be written down by many persons. From this cause, also, it happens that halcyons renovate themselves at irregular times, some sooner, some later, as they have earlier or later eaten the first entities ; for some are born and come forth sooner or later than others. Also many worms are renewed and restored for this reason, that they are fed and nourished on first entities while they are still imperfect in the earth. There are many marvellous things which are occult, and far more than are known or openly investigated, concerning which one could write more copiously, were they not too far removed from the text of a book on renovation and restoration.

And although, as we have previously written, we cannot very well take first entities, or have them in the same essence ; still it is possible for us to do so. For if we know where the mineral of gold lies hid, we shall also find its first entity in the same place if we come before its perfection. For there are certain signs by which it may be known how the form of the metal is placed. So whilst it is in its first entity it makes trees fruitful, and renders fertile its foundation, that is, the earth. It renovates old trees which for twenty years have borne no fruits ; for when the first entity of gold has seized upon them, or upon their roots, they begin again to live and flourish as before. But although there are many more particulars concerning the first entity of gold which are worthy of our admiration besides those we describe, these suffice for a demonstration of the first entity of gold, namely, that it is there. But when flames and sparks are seen, then it must be inferred and noted that the metal is being produced out of its first entity, which metal has betaken itself to the process of coagulation. These are reckoned as signs concerning the origin of minerals which apply to gold, silver, or the other metals ; for the signs of the other first entities as to their origin are like those whereof we have spoken.

When a sign of this kind has been seen or found it must be understood that this same first entity is not gathered up in one heap, as it is when it lies in its perfection, but that it is spread over the whole of the land in that district. Wherefore, this land is in the power of the first entities, and out of it these are drawn, as it is with the celandine when it is not yet composited. Its first entity is in the earth, where it has its position. For this reason similar earth should be taken, and from this at length an extract should be made, as we have pointed out concerning the virtues of celandine. It must be noted that between the first entity and the perfection there is this difference, namely, that the first entity has power to renovate for the reasons before mentioned : but when perfected it has only the virtues of the natures, so that it tends in that direction, but not perfectly. Thus it may be gathered that if it be wished to have from these virtues of the same kind as those of the first entities, it is necessary that they should be removed from their coagulation, and should be corrupted, as is pointed out in arcana and quintessences. But that every thing has greater powers in its first entity, let not philosophers wonder, because even out of any earth in which a herb is produced essentially, before it is incorporated, all the virtues of that herb can be extracted, so that the virtues may be preserved and the earth be put back into its own place, so that for the future it shall be mere earth, and have no fruitfulness in it, because its first entity is taken away, which had lain hid in the earth.

In this way it often happens that the power of a first entity of this kind may be enclosed in a glass, and be brought to such condition that the form of that herb grows of itself without any earth, and even when it has quite grown it has no body, but something shaped like a body, the cause of which is that it has no liquid of the earth. Hence it happens that its stem is nothing more than a mere apparition to the sight, because it can be again rubbed down to a juice by the finger, just like smoke, which shews a substantial form but is not perceptible by any sense of touch. In growing things of this kind the quintesssence is entirety incorrupt and in its highest state of perfection, as in the earth. Wherefore, from the first entity of gold is produced, in this way, the finished gold, which to the touch is like red water, and is stirred up and exalted like gold. So far concerning these things. Now, let us next in order betake ourselves to the practice of those things which renovate and restore, if they be prepared by the power and rule of art. These things, although briefly written by us, are sufficiently patent, nevertheless, to intelligent men, that is to say, those who have good instruction in medicine and philosophy.

First of all, then, must we know those things which renovate and restore, as we have pointed out, and their first entity must be extracted, and by that the work of renovation and restoration must be done. As a deduction from this argument we set down four mysteries, that is to say, of minerals, gems, herbs, and liquids, as follows : — The First Entity of Minerals. Take of mineral gold, or of antimony, very minutely ground, one pound, of circulated salt four pounds. Mix them together, and let them digest four months in horse-dung. Thence will be produced a water, whereof let the pure portion be separated from that which is impure. Coagulate this into a stone, which you will calcine with cenifiated wine, separate again, and dissolve upon marble. Let this water putrefy for a month, and thence will be produced a liquid in which are all the signs as in the first entity of gold or of antimony. Wherefore, with good reason, we call this the first entity of these things. In like manner, it will have to be understood concerning mercury and other things. The First Entity of Gems. Take of emeralds, well ground, 3Jm calcine them in dissolved salt until they be turned to a white colour. Afterwards let them be dissolved, and enclosed in a phial hermetically sealed, and placed over an open fire. Let the matter be suspended on high in a naked glass vessel, so that it shall not touch the bottom, and let this be continued until, from its spiritual nature and condition it falls down to the bottom into a body like the liquor of honey. This displays the virtues of the emerald. Wherefore, it may rightly be called the first entity of the emerald.

The First Entity of Herbs. Take celandine or balm ; beat them into a pulse, shut them up in a glass vessel hermetically sealed, and place in horse dung to be digested for a month. Afterwards separate the pure from the impure, pour the pure into a glass vessel with dissolved salt, and let this, when closed, be exposed to the sun for a montb. When this period has elapsed, you will find at the bottom a thick liquid and the salt floating on the surface. When this is separated you will have the virtues of the balm or of the celandine, as they are in their first entity; and these are called, and really are, the first entities of the balm or of the celandine. The First Entity of Liquids. Take the mineral of sulphur and of dissolved salt; let them be completely resolved into water by themselves, which distil four times. First will ascend a certain whiteness which displays all the virtues of the first essence of sulphur. Therefore with good reason we can have it in the place of the first entity of sulphur, and so name it. Now that the four first entities have been thus described generally, it must be further remarked in what way they are to be utilised, so that their virtues may be perceived. This is the method. Let either of those first entities be put into good wine, in such quantity that it may be tinged therewith. Having done this, it is prepared for this regimen. Some of this wine must be drunk every day about dawn until first of all the nails fall off from the fingers, after-

wards from the feet, then the hair and teeth, and, lastly, the skin be dried up and a new skin be produced. When all this is done that medicament or potion must be discontinued. And again, new nails, hair, and fresh teeth are produced, as well as the new skin, and all diseases of the body and mind pass away, as was declared above. Herewith we would conclude our little book on renovation and restoration. Here ends the Book concerning Renovation and Restoration. By the Great Theophrastus Paracelsus, Most Excellent Philosopher, AND Doctor of both Faculties. MANY have written concerning the quintessence of those things which either lie hid in the bowels of the earth or grow and sprout therefrom, concerning the quintessence, namely, of metals, salts, saps, stones, trees, herbs, roots, quadrupeds, fishes, and other animals, etc. To few, however, has it been vouchsafed to point out the method or process whereby the quintessence can be extracted from the said things, so that a certain hope might, indeed, be left for the human race, not only that a certain quintessence of this kind resided in things, but also that the glorious and honourable body of man might become partaker of the same essential blessing. Wherefore, I am now about to teach in part, avoiding the method of those loquacious triflers, who merely threaten with railing, but do not strike. It has often been stated that an implanted quintessence inheres and dwells in all things ; but I shall, in addition, indicate how it is to be extracted, not only from metals, stones, salts, and saps, etc., but also from roots, herbs, animals, and all other things which have anywhere been formed by the Creator.

All essential and created things contain in themselves water, oil, and salt ; hence it will be a matter of very great moment to separate the salt and the oil from the water. During the process of distillation the waters first appear, next the oils, lastly the salt. However, frequently the oil, the water, and the salt remain conjoined together. Thus, if juniper oil be extracted from berries in which salt is present, then the oil is separated by reason of its levity from the water, which is somewhat heavier. No one, notwithstanding, has hitherto succeeded in separating from it the salt, which is the most precious of all. Moreover, I am convinced that it is a true quintessence of juniper. Further, no fresh water proceeds from sulphur, but only oil. Yet, under that oil lie hidden salt and concealed water. Nor can it be properly designated oil unless the salt and the water have been previously removed and separated • This treatise is not included in the Geneva folio, and is derived from the Basle octavo of 1582. As the fourth book of the Archidoxies has already discussed at considerable length the subject of quintessences, and much further Information is scattered through previous books, there is no need for annotation at this point.

from it. Moreover, oil and water are present in common salt, but it can not be properly designated salt until the water and the oil have been separated from it. In plants and things growing in the earth each has its own water, salt, and oil, yet in a distinct manner. Thus, the warmest things have the most salt, the coldest the most copious supply of water. The lukewarm contain equal proportions of oil, salt, and water ; each in its own grade and kind. Thus they differ from one another in colour, odour, and savour. Also the subtlest and purest spirits which are in these things are extracted, and justly and rightly deserve to be described as salutary to the life of man. Growing metals, as are gold, silver, iron, lead, tin, copper ; also arsenic, marcasite, lapis lazuli, rust of copper, green of the mountain, calamine, vitriol, are the first and chief. These are followed by gems, as the emerald, carbuncle, amethyst, which is also called pyrops, cyamus, hyacinth, which is also called chrysolite, corals (white and red), also pearls, etc. And, indeed, the last possess the highest virtues of them all, provided that they be duly prepared ; although in addition to the above-mentioned stones various stones are found, as tiles, wherein no small efficacy for preserving the health of the human race is discovered — alabaster, bolus armenus, and others. But before the rest we desire here to speak of the more excellent.

In the third place, order demands the mention of vegetables growing out of the earth, as trees, shrubs, herbs, roots, and similar vegetables, their marrow, and other things under which both the saps and the liquors which proceed from growing things are comprehended. Thus, wine, various kinds of oil, as of olives, of nuts, of flax, of the berry of the laurel, of the nutmeg ; as also gums distilling out of trees, shrubs, and from the stalks of other vegetables, as Chian turpentine, myrrh, mastic ; also from the cherry and heliotrope, from the plum tree and the blackthorn, and others innumerable, each of which has been formed by the Creator of things for the profit and use of mankind. In the fourth place follow the animals, in which no small virtue and healthy operation lie hidden in many ways. Firstly, they are in the blood, which is most certainly the soul of every brute ; secondly, in the marrow or fat. Also, there is a force lying hidden in the flesh of animals provided with blood ; and equally in fishes, which have it not, from all which things the quintessence can be extracted to the unspeakably great advantage of man. Moreover, that I may at once shew by means of what things and methods this is effected, I will take the essence of the blood of a stork as an instance. This is a most excellent remedy against any poison which has been taken, a result which arises solely from sympathy and compassion.

Moreover, the blood of man when distilled abounds in these powers, because if its essence be kindled, it burns without ceasing, as long as the man whose blood it was, lives, and is extinguished when he dies. If those great doctors do not hold it as a nigromantic exorcising, the cause will be that they do not understand the natures of these things. But there exists not a more excellent cordial than that which is extracted from pearls or margarites, which possess such marvellous powers that

by its means I could restore dying men who are already in the agony of death, revive them, and enable them to speak again. It has also given me no small aid in raising up and restoring a man both paralysed and convulsed, who (in the judgment of all the bystanders) was solely in God's hands. The man afterwards spoke, wrote, and begat children. Nor do the other gems possess less efficacy, yet each after their kind. Concerning herbs, roots, and the family of the same, there is no doubt that even with the doctors who follow Galen they possess unspeakably great power and efficacy. What shall I say with regard to the excrement of men and of other animals ? If so many virtues reside in this castaway and refuse thing, how much greater virtues must dwell in the noblest metals, in gold, silver, antimony, etc. But how great a virtue must reside also in marcasite, since, without the addition of any other medium, it is a most salutary medicine and purge for all fistulas, for cancer, and similar ulcers ? I will say nothing here of vitriol, antimony, and other things which abound in virtues in no wise inferior to the former with reference to diseases of this kind, yet each according to its mode and genus. The same also is (perhaps the essence) of gold thus prepared, whereby I have frequently purged and cured an exceedingly foul leprosy and elephantiasis.

I pass over the fact that I have cured gout of forty years' standing, contractions and relaxations (of the sinews) and other (ailments) by means of this and other adjuncts. Nor are marrows and fatnesses to be altogether rejected, especially that of a man, the badger, pigs, rams, bulls, stags, apes, and similar animals, living either in water, air, or land, none of which things has grown or has been formed except as a special boon (to mankind), as is proved by the fact that the minutest Spanish flies, and the dung of the fiy and the moth, have their respective properties, all of which matters we have thoroughly enquired into, have examined completely, and have ascertained that nothing remains which has not received its powers and its virtues for the use and profit of man. But to approach our theme.

Concerning the Quintessence out of Oil, also of the Salt of

Take of the purest gold, reduced to minutest grains and lunated, or of gold calcined together with plumbago. Add to this 100 parts of the most excellent white wine discoverable, and 10 parts of the white pine. Leave them to be macerated in a glass for 40 days. Pour out the wine. Pour on the same quantity of fresh wine. Similarly macerate. Do this a third time. Pour these three relays of wine into a glass. Seal well, and distil in a strong fire, so that it may come forth strongly. When it has been distilled, place the glass with water (liquor) upon hot a:shes, being well sealed up with a blind alembic, the ashes being too hot for the fingers to bear. Let them stand under till nine parts are consumed or dried up, and the tenth part alone remains. Add the same quantity of the albumen of eggs to the water that remains. Shake together. Distil together, at first slowly ; when white water comes forth, separate this. Next distil more strongly until the bocia glows. and the matter comes forth in the form of a somewhat attenuated honey, of a strong (offensive) odour. Retain this, for this is the Quintessence of gold, the royal medicine. Place somewhat whitish and thick water in a glass. Cook until it be consumed. You will then find white and excellent salt. This is salt of the sun. However, the half of your gold will have gone, that is to say, the superior, which enters into the Quintessence. It is permissible to call this same essence the oil of the Sun.

Concerning the Oil or Quintessence of Silver and its Salt. Take silver reduced to the thinnest filings. Cut them up into the smallest parts in the form of a denarius. Do the same with particles of cinnabar. Place together m a glass, layer by layer. Let the glass be half filled and perfectly closed up. Then place it in a cupel for 30 days. Keep in a continuous fire. At last let it cool. It will then have extracted the soul or essence, and the silver will have been reduced to the form of a sponge. Purge the cinnabar with lead, and you will find the soul of silver in the residuum, and this is the most excellent silver that can anywhere be found. Reduce the said silver into the minutest grains, and pour on the strongest vmegar of wine. Let them stand in a glass, and the silver will become blue. Take away the blue and reserve it. Pour on other vinegar. Let it become a second time blue ; remove this again, repeating the process of adding blue matters till the silver be totally removed. If there were two ounces of silver, take one ounce of camphor. Let it be dissolved in the said blue silver and vinegar. Distil it as follows, at first slowly, then stronger and stronger, until the water commences to be tinged with a swarthy hue. Then remove the water from its receptacle, place and retain in another glass. After pressing the residuum through a bag, distil with a very strong fire from the faeces until the bocia glows, and you will find a quintessence in the glass, like a dark or coarse beer of somewhat caustic quality. This is that oil and quintessence of Luna. Cook the water retained until it be consumed (as in the case of the salt of the sun), and it will become a green salt, which is salt of silver.

Oil of Mars. Pound up crocus of Mars into a most minute and delicate powder. Wash this with fresh water. Pour out the water of the lotion. Let it stand until it sinks. Then separate the water from that which sinks, and let the crocus be dried up. Take any quantity of this, and make a paste with the yolk of eggs. Let it be again thoroughly dried. At last beat it into a powder, and spread on a smooth glass slab. Place in a wine cellar, and it will be dissolved into a clear oil. This is the oil of Mars, suitable for all external ulcers. Oil of Saturn. Take viii. oz. of spume of silver. Beat and pound extremely small. Place in a jar, which must lean in the fire to the side, as cinders of lead are usually produced. Stir the spume with an iron spoon. When it is sufficiently heated pour it out into an iron frying-pan. Let two measures of sharp and boiling vinegar be injected. The oil will then separate itself from the spume, when let the oil be again poured into the frying-pan. Let it be consumed until scarce one quarter of one measure remains. This oil has a marvellous sweetness. If you mix it with stale urine it will grow white like ceruse, and if it be boiled in an iron frying-pan it will subside and become like silver. Further, if a small quantity be placed in a vessel and it be left until it dries, there is produced from it a tenacious matter like thin (delicate) gluten. Let the matter which produces the oil be distilled through a well-sealed retort ; you will then have the pure and clear oil which is called the Quintessence of Saturn.

Oil and Salt of Jupiter. Let Jupiter be calcined in the following fashion : that is to say, let him be placed in a crucible and cooked by means of a secret fire, that is, by descent, for forty days. You will then have the powder which they call tin cinder. Take of this Jv., and of juice of lemons §lxv. Let these subside for the space of twenty days. Then wash away the ash. Afterwards wash the cinders. Pour on it again the said juice of lemons. Do this a third time. Afterwards let these be distilled, and let them be poured again over the cinder. Let them once more subside twenty days as before. Finally let them be distilled through the alembic, until at length pure water comes forth. If you perceive its colour to be red, apply a strong fire. The water which first comes forth is to be thrown away ; there will next issue a water mixed with oil, which is to be separated. You must then rectify the oil in the heat of the sun, and this is the oil of Jupiter. The second water is to be diminished by boiling to the tenth part. This you next allow to subside until it commences to have rays of such an extremely beautiful green colour as to almost surpass the colour of the emerald, and this is the salt of Jupiter, which also I judge as the spirit of Jupiter.

Of the Quintessence of Antimony. This is the most excellent and most sweet matter of all things which has ever existed ; it also excels all things proceding from Art or Nature. I except potable gold, because it is surpassed by the quintessence of our Stone, which not unfittingly but truly, we call by its true name, the Stone of the Philosophers. Take, therefore, antimony, which breaks into long and sharp grains which glow. Let it be pounded and sifted until it becomes a powder most thin and most subtle. Let this be imbibed in strong and good wine for thirty days. Let the vessel be well closed. But notice that for a pound of antimony there must be taken two measures of wine. Let these be put in the sun ; afterwards let them be distilled in a fire, slow at first, then stronger, until at last the water coming forth commences to redden. Then bring out another receptacle. Keep the water, having sealed it up well in the vessel, sufficiently long to permit it to subside. Then, within the space of nine or ten days, something black will appear at the bottom, from which take the water which swims above it, and for every § v. let there be taken an ounce and a half of carline thistle cut up small. Let these again be distilled together. The other water, which is also red, needs in distillation a strong fire so that the lid may glow, whereupon you will see upon the water a red oil, which must be separated from it.

In this manner is produced juniper oil. Each must be kept in a separate place. Also in this way are extracted those three waters out of antimony, which contain in themselves the Quintessence. The process for extracting it is as follows : While these three species of waters are subsiding during the period of 30 da)'S, you will find something earthy at the bottom of the glass vessel, just as was done previously with the first water. Then let the waters be strained, and the clear separated from the turbid ; the former are to be retained, the latter rejected. Afterwards let them be distilled in the first grade of the fire only for 30 days, among cinders, until the matter be coagulated and become a hard stone, like to granite in colour. Let the stone be beaten up and dissolved in distilled vinegar ; afterwards let these be distilled through the alembic. The water which comes forth is to be placed in a glass vessel over cinders in the second grade of the fire. You will then find a red stone like tospinetum, and this is the quintessence of antimony. It was never previously known that it was useful to humanity, but it cures all leprosies and removes all fistulas, also the French disease ; indeed, all the incurable diseases of that type, as also all pellicles and small specks in the eyes. It is neither bitter nor acrid, but has a sweet savour;

its consistency is like oil, its colour that of red wine. It is the special cure of dropsy, for it quickly consumes (removes) the dropsy if the patient take the quantity of one pea of this medicine in the water of violets. It also heals paralysis, apoplexy, and epilepsy, if with three drops of potable gold the quantity of one ■third part of a scruple be taken, for this stone is dissolved therein. Lest it should perish, it must be kept in dry places, and preserved in seed of millet ; for if it be placed in humid situations it corrupts in four months' time.

Concerning Oil and Salt out of Marcasite. Pound as subtly as possible such marcasite as is found on the mountains. Pour over it strong wine ; then, in order that it may overflow, let it be stirred with a stick daily, and after three days let the wine be poured out, fresh being added. Let this be done until to lolb. of marcasite an addition has been made of 20 measures. Let the wine strained or poured out be distilled with marcasite until water issues forthj which water is to be retained. Next close the aperture of the tube in the glass vessel, in an effectual manner, with lute. Apply a somewhat fierce fire, so that the matter in the upper part of the cucurbite, which resembles pure silver, may attach itself to the sides. Keep this and cast away the dross. Afterwards diminish it by boiling, so that a single measure only may remain. Put the white matter, which was in the upper part of the cucurbite, previously well pounded over a stone, into a cellar, and beneath let there be placed a small vessel into which oil flows. This is a most excellent remedy against fistula, cancer, and other diseases of this kind. That is called the quintessence which is extracted from immature metal. However, again distil the water cooked in this manner. Diminish it by boiling till half has departed, that is to say, till half remains. Let this subside for the space of 30 days. Throw into it straws and pieces of wood cut small, upon which there will collect a salt like to crystal, except as regards colour, which is slightly green. And thus you have oil and salt out of marcasite, which two are by no means the smallest aids to the preservation of the life of the human race and its health.

Oil out of Common Salt. The confection of oil out of salt is not a useless and unproductive labour, since that wherewith it is prepared possesses the greatest diversity in nature from it, not so much in point of provocation of thirst, and removal of putrefaction, as of sweetness of savour. For oil painlessly eats into and consumes in a single hour all things whatsoever which are smeared therewith, and are putrid by nature, whether it comes in contact with them in wounds or other injuries. On the other hand, salt nourishes whatever is putrid, and prevents its consumption, and is sharp. Moreover, salt excites thirst, whereas oil repels it, as may testify several subjects of dropsy, who, having taken some, were free from thirst between nine and ten days. Lastly, as regards the savour, the oil is not sharp as the salt, but forcibly reminds one of the sweetness of honey, or of the juice of wild apples. Oil and Salt of Coral, also of Crystal. Crystals of the first quality are found in the Helvetic Alps. Let these be reduced by pounding to the smallest powder, over which let there be poured the juice of lemons ; let them be put into a cucurbite with a narrow neck on hot cinders as deep as the matter which is in the glass. Let them subside for 40 days. Then the crystals will be dissolved, and from them is produced a gross water.

Add to these vinegar, equal in quantity to the juice ; let them subside for 20 days again. Afterwards let there be added musk, which is good, in order that the matter may further ascend ; then let all be distilled in a wellclosed glass vessel. All the water which issues forth must be retained, for no oil comes out, and care must be taken lest the fire be too fierce, otherwise the matter would be burnt up. Next cook the water until half be consumed, and distil until it acquires a gold colour. Afterwards pour it out and distil it in a strong fire until there comes forth pure water of a yellow hue. But if it be turbid let it be preserved apart, and that which is coarse (gross) is to be distilled in a glowing cucurbite, wherein, while it cooks, you will find a yellow oil swimming on the surface of the water. This is the quintessence of crystal. Collect all the waters, the white, also the yellow, and that which comes out last, into a glass vessel. Put thereupon small and thin straws of the length

of a finger. Seal up the glass vessel well, place in a cellar, and leave it for 40 days. Then upon the said straws there will grow a matter having rays like salt nitre. Dry these, and you will then have salt of crystal of a marvellous nature, virtue, and efficacy. Oil and Salt of Pearls. Arabian pearls, and those which are fetched from India, are among others the best. They require to be purged with pure and warm water ; next to be dissolved in vinegar nine times distilled. You will be able to renew the vinegar every three days ; pour out into a glass vessel, well sealed up, and keep therein. And if they be altogether consumed and dissolved, the vinegar must be abstracted by means of distillation : that which remains at the bottom must be again dissolved into vinegar, and again distilled as before. Then a portion of the pearls or margarites will distil. Keep the distilled water until nothing remains of the pearls. Add to one measure of the same water half an ounce of camphor, which is of so great a virtue that it will not suffer any dross, but renders that which is earthy and heavy light and volatile, so that it can ascend. These are to be distilled again, and the vinegar consumed by boiling to the twentieth part. This must be done in an open glass vessel having a large and wide mouth.

Let the remainder be distilled through the alembic until pure water flows. When this has commenced to turn yellow put another glass vessel beneath. Subject it to a fire which increases in vehemence, and then there will proceed a gross matter resembling thin honey. This is the quintessence of pearls, a true crown of human life. But salt is confected from the water which precedes the yellow colour. Let that be cooked until it becomes a salt. This salt is beautiful, white, and soft, yielding the sweetness of camphor.

Of the Essence and Salt of Things growing on the Earth. There exists no better method of extracting the essence of herbs and roots than to cut them up as small as possible and boil them in strong wine in a jar, well closed, lest any of the spirits should evaporate. Let the wine be separated by frequent straining. Also let fresh be poured in again until they lose their strength. Then no further process is needed except to collect all the wines and distil them together through the alembic. This can be done as frequently as you desire, but the aperture of the glass vessel must be effectually sealed up. It is then necessary to wait until the virtue which resides in the wine, and circulates throughout the vessel, collects into one place, for the smaller the quantity of the essence of these things, the better and more subtle the quality. But when at length the waters have boiled after the first and second distillation, salt is discovered at the bottom. Note, however, that in order to the extraction of oil from most herbs it is requisite that both herbs and roots be distilled. But in the case of those which are fat, their leaves alone, when exposed to the sun in a glass vessel, yield an oil, whence

ultimately a quintessence can be extracted, and in the same manner also a salt. Wherefore it is impossible to assign to each herb its peculiar operation. Nevertheless, we shall distinguish between those which have oil in them spontaneously, and distil it of their own accord, for instance, nutmegs, the rind of a species of quinces, or golden apples, and the like. Eggs, nutmegs, berries of the laurel, and similar fruits must be melted up and roasted a little in a frying-pan over the fire, so that they may acquire a savour of burning. Afterwards press out the oil. This method of extracting is simple child's play, but there exists scope for skill in extracting from that oil something j'et more subtle : just as no small art is required to extract oil from cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and the like, in which the method is quite dissimilar to the above. Indeed, these are distilled through the pores like juniper oil. Consequently, the same amount is not extracted from these as from other matters, although they be more excellent, whereas the berries of the laurel, nutmegs (they are also called myristicce), and similar things out of which an oil proceeds without any process, as aforesaid, yield a larger supply than those things which are light and tender, or are even pressed.

The Method of Separating Oil and Salt from Oil of Olives. Oil which proceeds out of olives also contains salt, Jhough not of special quality. It is extracted more abundantly out of old oil than out of fresh. Out of this is produced a red water, which, marvellous to say, is a most speedy remedy for the stone, whereas it is manifest that no oil contains an aqueous humidity, nor is of such a nature as to break the stone. Wherefore let those who exclaim "How can this or that be done?" speak with more deliberation and modesty. They bring forward the argument that it is contrary to its nature and property, but they totally ignore the fact that cooking involves so great an alteration as to frequently effect what otherwise lies not in the essence or nature of a thing. Similarly, our silver, although it be not gold, is reduced to such an extent by coction as to arrive at the most excellent gold. Thus also iron is converted into genuine and most excellent copper. The matter of which we are here speaking takes place in the same way. That Red Water out of Oil of Olives is made in a similar Way.

Take lb. iiij. of oil. Place in a kettle of copper. Heat it so that it may commence to smoke ; let it cool again, and put in a bocia. Close up its neck most effectually with a sponge. Superimpose a helm well stopped up with lute, lest any vapour should escape. Distil the matter in a slow fire ; at length the virtue begins to issue forth. The fire is to be maintained at an equal temperature — not at one moment hot, and at another cold. The water will then become red. If it commence to thicken in the upper part of the receiver, it is necessary to cease operation and proceed no further. And this is the water which is extracted out of oil. It cannot long be kept entire by reason of the putrid nature it contains in itself. Notwithstanding, it dissolves in a moment, as it VOL. II. L were, the stone in the bladder. For nine days daily let three spoonfuls be administered, one in the morning, one at noon, and one in the evening. After this the patient must fast a whole hour. The savour of this water is nauseous, and frequently affects a man so much as to give him a headache.

Salt is made in the following Fashion. Distil oil out of which the red water has been made ; abstract it through the alembic by means of a moderate fire, and if it flow in excess, remove the fire. If it cannot endure great heat you will find turbid matter at the bottom of the bocia. This is to be removed into a small glass vessel. There must be added to it as much pure fountain water as there is matter. The oil will then float on the top, and must be separated from the water, in which there is no fatness. Distil it again and you will have pure water, which must be cooked in a glass vessel until it be consumed. You will then discover at the bottom a somewhat black salt, most suitable for purging ; it is also a strong laxative. Method of Extracting the Oil and Salt from Pepper. Beat the grains to a fine powder. Add thereto the sap of the alder, sufficient to cover the powder. Let it settle, exposed to a very hot sun, as during the dog-days, for nine days. Afterwards press through a bag. When the water has been distilled pour it again upon the faeces, and let it settle for nine days. Next, when the water commences to recover colour, let it be removed. Put out another vessel in the place of the first. Extract the oil with a strong fire.

If any water has been mingled with it, it must be separated by means of a glass funnel. The last water must be added to the first, and again distilled, and consumed, till but a quarter remains, by coction. Let this settle for 30 days in a glass vessel well secured over a capella. A salt will then be found at the bottom, possessing the savour of pepper, most excellent as a pickle for food, by reason of the extremely excellent odour it yields. It is wonderfully hot, and adapted for cold limbs and nerves.

Oil out of Gums. Take myrrh, mastic, and gum, or like things, which must be pure and clear. Let them be pounded and sprinkled over fresh eggs, which have been cooked hard, split through the middle, and placed in sand in a pan, which must be put in a cellar until the powders are dissolved into oil. This cures all wounds and alleviates gout. A man's face is rendered fair if it be anointed therewith after a bath. In like manner it preserves the flesh from putrefaction so that the same can never ensue. Take an apple of colocynth and remove all the seeds. Cut them up small. Let marrow be taken to the weight of three coins of Ravenspurg. Let it be placed in a glass vessel. Add thereto of The weight of three coins of Ravenspurg. Pound them all together and place in the glass vessel where the colocynth was put. Pour over five tablespoonfuls of good wine. Let it settle for eight hours. If you desire to use it, it must be prepared about twelve o'clock, mid-day, and must be taken at night. It is next necessary to lie down, then purgation will commence at midnight, or at one o'clock. Note, before taking this medicine, that it must be pressed through the bag, and it must be eaten. But be careful not to press it out too violently. Take only that which penetrates by itself, so to speak, spontaneously, about seven or eight drops, lest it become too violent. When, therefore, the purgation has occurred several times, take, about seven o'clock in the morning, some soup wherein peas have been cooked, but which contains neither salt nor butter, only a slight admixture of flesh. Take it as hot as can be borne, for two hours, without anything else being eaten.

Here ends the Book concerning the Quintessence. THE third fundamental part, or pillar, of true medicine, is Alchemy. Unless the physician be perfectly acquainted with, and experienced in, this art, everything that he devotes to the rest of his art will be vain and useless. Nature is so keen and subtle in her operations that she cannot be dealt with except by a sublime and accurate mode of treatment. She brings nothing to the light that is at once perfect in itself, but leaves it to be perfected by man. This method of perfection is called Alchemy. For the Alchemist is a baker, in that he bakes bread ; a Vv^ine merchant, seeing that he prepares wine ; a weaver, because he produces cloths. So, whatever is poured forth from the bosom of Nature, he who adapts it to that purpose for which it is destined is an Alchemist. Hence you may understand the difference between this art and all others, from the comparison which has been set before you. For, consider, if any one should put on a rough sheep's skin for garment, how rude and coarse this vi'ould be compared with the work of the furrier and clothier. Equally rude and coarse would it be if one had anything taken straight from Nature, and did not prepare it. Nay, this would be much more rude than the former. For this is concerned with the body itself, its life and health. Hence it has to be handled and dealt with much more carefully. Now, these universal methods of treatment have rivalled Nature, and have so mastered her properties that they can express the nature itself in everything, and elicit that

* This treatise constitutes the third section of the Liber Paragranum, wherein are described the four columns upon which Paracelsus built his system of Medicine. These are Philosophy, Astronomy, Alchemy, and Rectitude. The first distinguishes between the false and adulterated philosophy of Aristotle, and that sure and genuine species expounded by Theophrastus himself. The latter alone enlarges that knowledge whereby the physician is instructed in the matter of all diseases. There is no other way by which the truth concerning the body of man and its nature can possibly be estimated. Outside it there is only pure imposture. Disease itself is of Nature, Nature alone understands and knows disease, and Nature also is the sole medicine of disease. The matter out of which man is made testifies to the physicians concerning that which is produced therefrom. Man, as the exemplar and type of all things, contains within himself all knowledge and wisdom which are required in Medicine. There are two species of philosophy— one is of heaven, the other of earth. The philosopher is he who is acquainted with the things of the lower sphere- the astronomer, on the other hand, is he who is familiar with the things of the sphere above. In their medical aspect philosophy is concerned with the earth and water in man, and astronomy with the air and fire which exist in the same subject. For man is heaven, air, water, earth. As there is a Zodiac in heaven, so is there a Zodiac in man ;

as there is a firmament in heaven, so is there a firmament in the body. Man has his father in heaven and in the air. He is the son, made and born from air and the firmament. Heaven operates in us. This operation can be understood by no one who is ignorant of the essence and nature of heaven. The star is the basis of celestial knowledge ; he who is acquainted therewith is already the disciple of Medicine, and is on the way to understand the heaven in man. So far concerning the first two pillars of Medicine. But the fourth is the probity of the physician, which consists in the certitude of his art, and the rectitude and sincerity of his faith in God, which forbids him to falsify anything, and makes him a fulfiUer of the works of God,

Alchemy, the Third Column of Medicine. 1 49 which is the chief feature in each. But in Medicine, where it is most specially necessary, this power exists in the smallest degree ; so that, in this respect, Medicine is most rude and unpolished. How can man be more rude than when he eats raw flesh, clothes himself in undressed hides, and has his dwelling in the nearest rocks, or is exposed to the rains ? In the same way, how can a physician be more dense, or the preparation of medicine than v/hat ointmentsellers use for decocting substances ?* Nothing can be more objectionable than this method for pounding, subduing, and mixing medicines, or for polluting them in any other difi"erent way. As its own special art dresses the hide, so so does its own special art prepare the medicament. And since, in this place, the true basis of preparing remedies, in which lies the whole essence of medicine, is laid down and established, be well assured of this, that such a foundation must be extracted from the most secret recesses of Nature, and not from the imaginative brain, as a cook dresses a mess of pottage, according to his own judgment. For in this preparation the extreme and ultimate condition of things is posited. Thus, if philosophy and astrology — that is, the nature of diseases and their remedies, with all their combinations and conjunctions— be understood, it follows next in order, and is chiefly necessary, that you should decide how you will use and avail yourself of your knowledge.

Nature, indeed, of herself teaches you on these subjects, and you should give her your chief attention in order that you may reduce your medical science down to practice. As summer puts forth the pears and the grapes, so should you do with your medicine. If you act thus you will assuredly compass the results you covet. And if it so be that as summer puts forth its fruits, so you do with your medicine, be certain that summer does this by means of the stars, and in no case without their aid. Now, if the stars accomplish this, take care so to regulate your preparation in this case also that it shall be duly directed by the stars. These it is which complete and perfect the work of the physician. Now, if the stars have this effect, it is right that medicine should be understood, and naturalised in all respects, with reference to them. Let it not be said ; This is cold, this warm, this moist, this dry; but rather let it be said : This is Saturn, this Mars, this Venus, this the Pole-star. In such a way the physician proceeds by a straight road, especially if, beyond this, he also knows how to subject, conjoin, and harmonise the astral Mars with that which is produced from it. For here is situated the covering or nucleus which none of the physicians from first to last before me has ever arrived at.

This must be understood, that medicine should be prepared with reference to the stars, so that they exert their astral influences. The higher stars weaken and cause death, but they also heal. If any of these eflfects is to be produced, it cannot be done without the stars. But if this is to be done by the help of the stars, it will be done after such a manner, and in such a way, that the preparation will be reduced to practice, so that medicine will be compounded and prepared by means of heaven, just

* The text .at this point is unintelligible, a-s the comparison is not completed. It has been rendered literally in translation. as prophecies and other acts are settled by heaven. That is, you see, that the stars presage and prognosticate unfavourable weather, that they foretell diseases, and the deaths of kings and princes ; the stars, moreover, portend battles and wars, pestilences, and famine. All these things are indicated by heaven. It makes and produces them. What it produces it naturally predicts. All these effects come from this source, and from it, too, proceed all the branches of this science. So, then, if they are produced by heaven, and come from heaven, they will also be governed by heaven, so that all those matters which have been mentioned and pointed out will be produced at its will and pleasure. The occurrences which have been predicted from heaven come to pass at its pleasure ; so that heaven produces and regulates them. Moreover, lay this well to heart.' If Medicine is from heaven, without any contradiction it will remain subject to heaven, will accommodate itself thereto, and be regulated according to its will and pleasure. Now, if this be true, it is absolutely necessary that the physician should form an opinion concerning degrees and complexions, humours and qualities, and, whether he will or not, he must learn that Medicine is in the stars ; that is, he must judge the nature of Medicine according to the stars, so that he shall understand the superior as well as the inferior stars.

Since Medicine is worthless ■ save in so far as it is from heaven, it is necessary that it shall be derived from heaven.* And this bringing down from heaven means neither more nor less than the abolition and elimination of every earthly element which exists in it. Heaven does not rule it except these earthly elements be separated from it. If you have effected this separation, then Medicine is in the power of the stars, and. is ruled and protected by them. For instance, everything relating to the brain is led down to the brain by means of Luna. What relates to the spleen flows thither by means of Saturn ; all that refers to the heart is carried thither by means of Sol. So, too, the kidneys are governed by Venus, the liver by Jiipiter, the bile by Mars. And not only with reference to these, but in all other respects, this must be, in an ineffable manner, perceived. For of what use is the medicine which you exhibit for the matrix of a woman unless it be directed by Venus ? What remedy would there be for the brain unless Luna gave it its origin? So judge with regard to the rest. Otherwise all remedies would remain in the bowels, and by-and-bye, being ejected through the intestines, would produce no effect whatever. Thence it happens that, if heaven does not aid your efforts, but refuses to direct your medicaments, you will profit very little. There is need of heaven as the regulator. Herein consists true

* The stars, therefore, have generated physicians constituted in the light of Nature, so that they might not deviate from investigating by their own sltill the various arts. The first source of their discoveries was in the stars and influences, which, turned into alchemy, in no slight degree enriched the medical art. For alchemy is but a medical pyrotechny, whereby marvellous preparations, transmutations, transubstantiations, etc., of thing^medical are artificially produced. For such is the affinity of the firmament ot the constellation with the nature of terrestrial bodies, that he who is informed with celestial doctrine is not debarred from the desire of the knowledge of terrestrial things, and when these are combined there isjoined to them an influence from heaven, and so out of those three, thus united, there arises the true physician. A physician generated after this manner will never lack those remedies which suddenly become necessary for a pressing purpose. —C/;/r«r^frt ^/rt^wd, Pars II., Tract I., c. 16. , ■' Alchemy, the Third Column of Medicine. 1 5 1 art, that you should not speak after this fashion : " Melissa is a herb that acts on the matrix, marjoram on the head." Thus speak the inexperienced. The matter rests with Venus and Luna. If you wish to attain the ends you anticipate you must have heaven kindly and benignant to you, otherwise no effect will be produced. This is, the source of that error which is so abundant in medicine.

" Do you at least drink it. If it does you good it does, and there is an end of it." Any clown can practise this art. There is no need of an Avicenna or a Galen for it. You physicians, who have sprung from them, are wont to say that we must have directories for the head, the brain, the liver, etc. And how can you dare to lay down these directories when you understand nothing about heaven ? That is the sole director. Moreover, you forget one thing, which convicts you all of folly. You have, indeed, found out what things direct the brain, the matrix, the anua, the head, the bladder, etc. ; but of what things rule disease you are utterly ignorant. Now, if you do not know what rules a disease, you are ignorant as to where the disease is situated. You do just the same with the principal parts which you say are affected as the sacrificers do with their gods. They put the whole of them in heaven, although very many of them lie buried in the infernal regions. So, according to you, all diseases arise from the liver or the lungs, though sometimes they affect the rectum.

This is because heaven rules by means of the stars, but not so the physician. So medicine must be reduced to air, that it may readily be ruled by the stars. Can a stone be lifted up by the stars ? No, unless it be volatilised. Hence it is that many, by means of Alchemy, hunt after a fifth essence ; which means nothing else than that the four bodies shall be separated from the arcana. Then, what remains is an arcanum. This arcanum, moreover, is a chaos, as easy to be deduced from the stars as a feather to be swayed by the wind. Such, then, should be the preparation of medicine, that the four bodies shall be taken from their arcana. To this should be added the knowledge as to what star is in any arcanum. Then it must be known what is the star of this disease, and what is the star in medicine that operates against this disease. Hence, at length, proceeds a direction. If you drink a medicament, then the belly, which is your alchemist, is compelled to prepare this for you. But if the belly can reduce the medicament to such a condition that it is received by the stars, then that medicament is directed. If not, it remains in the belly and passes off with the excrement. Now, what, I ask, is more worthy of a physician than a knowledge of the concordance existing between each star ?

In this consists a knowledge of all diseases. In this respect Alchemy is an external bowel, which prepares its own sphere for the star. It is not, as some madly assert, that Alchemy makes gold and silver. Its special work is this — To make arcana, and direct these to disease. To this it must come, and here it is symmetrical. For all these things proceed from the guidance of Nature, and with its sanction. So ought Nature and man to be conjoined, brought together, and estimated one by the other. The whole principle of cure and sanitation rests

in this. Alchemy perfects all these processes ; and without it not one of them can exist.* Now if all arcana belong to Medicine, and all medicines are arcana, and, moreover, all arcana are volatile, by what right, I ask, can that sausage-stuffer and that sordid concocter of the pharmacopoeia give himself out as a dispenser and a veritable concocter ? In undisguised truth he is a dispenser and concocter, but of mere trumpery. How great is the folly of those doctors who trick people by means of such clownish concocters with their electuaries, syrups, pills, and ointments, which are based on no foundation, or art, or medicine, or knowledge ! Not one of you, if put on your oath, would dare to examine what works conscientiously and truly. The same, too, is the principle of your Uroscopy. From the urine you divine as to the blue sky, and you persist so strongly in your trifling as to confess that there is nothing but divination and conjecture in the whole matter, nor any coincidence except what occasionally happens by chance. In your surgeries you lie so consummately, and with your washings and your decoctions you assume such a magisterial air, that nobody could think otherwise than that the whole kingdom of heaven is affected by you, whereas you conceal nothing save the mere bottomless pit of the infernal regions. If you would put aside these your incapacities, and would examine arcana, what they are, what director they have, and how the stars rule disease and health, then at the same time you would learn that your whole foundation amounted to nothing but phantasy and private opinion. The ultimate and sole proposition is that the principle of medicine consists of these arcana, and that arcana form the basis of a physician. Now, if the sum total of the matter lies in arcana, it follows

* Thirdly and lastly, there is alchemy, wherein the physician should eminently excel. For if he does not thence take his preparation, his practice is nothing worth. Herein consists all the art of preparation. It is also the art which teaches how to separate the stars from the bodies, so that those stars obey the stars and firmament in direction, for the direction is not in the bodies, but only in the firmament. Hence it also follows that everything which the brain produces is a sign to the Moon through its course ; that which the spleen produces Satiu-n attracts to himself; that which the heart produces is attracted by the Sun ; and in this manner the e.xternal firmaments are the directors of the interior. So do they speak wrongly who say that Melissa is good for the matrix and sage for the cerebrum. For unless Venus and Luna direct them thither, they sink into the stomach and pass out through the intestines. Therefore that which does not separate in medicine is not directed by heaven, that is to say, the course of heaven is absent, and so nothing operates. So has every part its director from stars, and they are called stars. But heaven directs nothing except that which is separated from the body— that is, heaven directs only the arcanum, not the body itself; just as it directs reason to man and then reason directs the body - so heaven directs substances, which, if they be in the stomach are cooked therein, and then it directs one thing-that is, the arcanum.

The stomach, indeed, is an alchemist, that is, one who fulfils the function of alchemy ; but this takes place much more usefully without, before the substance sinks into the stomach, for then its operation will be much more powerful. Unless this be done, it will be like raw flesh, which the stomach digests much more thoroughly if it be assimilated after cooking. But if so much care be required over the preparation of food, how far more is necessary in the case of medicine. Many have despised alchemy as a senseless search after the confection of gold and silver, but it is not our intention to giveamore prolix definition here. I havedecided only todeal with the preparation - that is to say, how much virtue and efficacy there is in medicine which is devoid of a body. He, therefore, who contemns alchemy, herein despises that which he does not understand. ' Although I know well enough that not even apothecaries, barbers, and servants about the baths, will cease from their cookings ; nevertheless, if you double the faith which you at present have in your medicines, the congeries of your recipes sufficiently proves that you are nothing but fools. It is evident enough whom ye cure, how, where, and when. Since, therefore, I am decided thus lastly, to teach of alchemy, which is itself the fountain and pillar of medicine, it must be stated that without this art no one can be a physician, for he who lacks it has the same relation to a physician as his own cook has to that of the prince. All Nature therefore recognises alchemy, and desires that it should be understood by the physici.™, and that the same, being skilled therein, should not ever be cooking soups and Qo\^\vox\.. - Fragincntn Medjca.

that the foundation of all is Alchemy, by which arcana are prepared.* Know, therefore, that it is arcana alone which are strength and virtues. They are, moreover, volatile substances, without bodies ; they are a chaos, clear, pellucid, and in the power of a star. If you know the star, and know the disease, then you clearly understand who is your guide, and wherein your power consists. So, then, these arcana prove thai there is nothing in your humours, qualities, and complexions, that such terms as melancholy, phlegma, cholera, and the rest, are falsely imported into the question, and that in place; of these should be introduced Mars and Saturn, so that you should say, " This is the arcanum of Mars, this of Saturn." In these, true Physic consists. Who of you, my hearers, will venture to reject and turn away from this foundation ? Only your teachers do this : and in this respect they are like the old and casehardened students. If, then, it be right for the physician to know such things as these, it will also be convenient that he should ascertain the meaning of calcination and sublimation. And he should not only know this as a matter of handicraft, but as one of transmutation, which is far more important. For by these methods, as they are met with in preparation, there are very often produced such maturations as not even Nature herself is able to bring about.

Towards this maturation the physician should direct his art. It is the autumn, the summer, and the star of those things which he ought to bring to perfection. Fire is the earth ; man is the order ; and the thing operated upon is the seed. And, although all these things are simply understood in the world, they are in result various and manifold. So also are they manifold in the locahty of the result. And yet by our process all arcana are born and produced in the fire. That fire is their earth ; and this earth is also a sun ; and so the earth and the firmament, in this second generation, are one and the same. In this the arcana are decocted ; in this they are fermented. And as the seed in the earth putrefies before it is reborn, and fructifies, so here also in the fire a dissolution takes place, wherein the arcana are fermented, lose their bodies, and, by means of ascension, go off into their exaltations, the times of which are calcination, sublimation, reverberation, solution, etc. ; and, secondly, into reiteration, that is, into transplantation. Now, all these operations take place by means of motion, which is given by the time. For there is one time of the external world, and another of man. But the operation, or force, of the celestial motion is truly marvellous. And, although the artificer may be disposed to rate highly both himself and his work, still here is the sum of the matter, that heaven, in an equally wonderful way, decocts, digests, imbibes, dissolves, and reverberates, while the alchemist does the same. The motion of heaven, too, teaches the motion and regimen of the fire in the Athanor. .So also the virtue which is in the sapphire, heaven draws forth and discloses by means of solution,

* Alchemy indeed brings forth many eicellent and sublime arcana to the light, which have been accidentally discovered rather than sought for. Wherefore let alchemy be great and venerable in the sight of everyone, for many arcana are in tartar, in juniper, in melissa, in tincture, in vitriol, in salt, in alum, in Luna and in Sol. — De Cndiicis, Par. IV. coagulation, and fixation. Now, if by these three methods the heaven is thus constituted in its operations, whilst it reduces them to this point, it necessarily follows that the solution of the sapphire shall also, in like manner, be made up of these three points. The solution is of this nature, that bodies are thereby excluded and the arcanum remains. For, hitherto, while the sapphire remained entire, there was no arcanum. But afterwards, analogously to the life in man, so this arcanum has been infused by heaven into this matter. Therefore, the body, which impedes the arcanum, has to be removed, For, as nothing is produced or begotten from the seed, unless it be dissolved, which dissolution is nothing but a putrefaction of the body, not of the arcanum itself, so, in this case, is it with the body of the sapphire, save in so far that it has received an arcanum. But now its dissolution is brought about through the same processes which caused its previous coalescence. The seed corn in the field has no little experience of the industry ot Nature during its own progress to the corn-ear.

For there is an elixir, and a most consummate fermentation, which is retained in Nature beyond all other places. Afterwards follows digestion ; and hence begins increase of the substance itself. Whoever wishes to become such a natural originator must gain his end in this way. Otherwise, he will be a mere cook, or scullion, or dish-washer. For Nature demands that in all respects the same preparation shall take place in man as in herself ; that is, that we shall follow her as our guide and not the follies of our own brain. But you, doctors and ointment-sellers, what do you ferment, or putrefy, or digest, or exalt? Nothing, save when you make up some medley of sauces which you serve out and shamefully palm oif upon people. Who can praise a physician when he has not learnt the method and principle of Nature ? Who will trust him ? The physician should be nothing but the skilled advocate of Nature, who, in the very first place, knows its being, properties, and condition. If he is thus ignorant about the composition of Nature, what, I conjure you, can he know of its dissolution ? Understand that dissolution is a kind of retrogression. Whatever things Nature has gradually formed by composition, those things you ought to be able to dissolve by a reverse process. As long as you or I shall be inexperienced in, and ignorant of, this solution, so long, at all events, we shall act the part of robbers, murderers, rascals, or simple novices.

What, I would ask, can you produce from alum, in which are latent as many arcana for diseases of the body as for wounds ? According to your method of proceeding, who ever, by following the pharmacopoeists, applied it to that use in which it is chiefly powerful ? The same may be said of mumia as of alum. Where will you seek it ? Beyond the ocean, among the heathen ? O, you simpletons, who fetch from afar what is before your very houses, and within your city walls ! Because you are ignorant of Alchemy, you are on that account ignorant also of Nature.* Have you persuaded yourselves that, * I also assign the greatest weight to experience, as most helpful in the attainment of a proposed end, especially in alchemy, by which things unheard of, and indeed scarcely credible, are produced, whence also fertile science and because you disparage Avicenna, and Savonarola, and Valescus, and Vigo, that you are as capable as these men ? These are mere trifles. Apart from this arcanum, nobody can inquire into the true composition of anything in Nature. Bring together into one spot all your doctors and writers, and tell me what corals contain, and what they can do. However much you may chatter, and whatever blatant nonsense you may talk about their powers, directly you begin to reduce it to practice, it is proved that you have not one particle of experience or of knowledge about corals.

This is the reason why the process of the arcanum has never been handed down in writing. But if the process is accomplished, then its virtue is ready to hand. So great is your simplicity, however, that most of you think everything consists in pounding, and that it suffices if you write : " Let these things be strained and mixed. Make a powder with sugar." What Pliny and Dioscorides wrote about herbs they did not prove by experience, but gathered from the famous authors who knew many such matters, and then they filled many books with their feminine chatter. Dare to make the experiment for yourselves whether what they hand down is true. Will you never be able to reach the goal of experiment and proof ? What do Hermes and Archelaus say about vitriol ? They mention its vast virtues, indeed ; and these are present in it, but you are ignorant what powers are in it, whether the green or the blue. Can you be masters of natural things and not know this ? What you know, you have read, indeed, but you profit nothing and do no good by it. What do the alchemists and other philosophers teach about the potencies of mercury ? Their teaching is copious, indeed, and full of truth. That you know truly, but how it is to be verified you know not. Cease, then, to shout. In this respect your academies and yourselves are novices and mere tyros.

You skim overall these matters in your reading, and you say, " This property is in one thing, that in another ; one is black, another is green. God is my witness, I know no more. So I find it written." So, unless it had been thus written, you would have known nothing about it. Do you think that I am wrong in laying and fixing my foundation in the Alchemical Art ?* This reveals to me what is true, and that you are unskilled in proving the truth. Is not such art worthy to come into the light ? And is not that deservedly termed the foundation of Medicine, which proves, augments, and establishes the knowledge of the physician ? But what is to be thought of

notable experience are gathered in the light of Nature. I could state on oath that from such experience the greatest and most notable fundamental principle in medicine has arisen. Who without it will ever be a physician, or know and understand anything ?—jC*' Cu(/wc;>, Par. III. * We assume no person will doubt that the chemical art has been devised to supply the deficiencies of Nature ; for although Nature supplies very many most excellent remedies, she has, notwithstanding, produced some which are imperfect and crude ; for the perfection of these a separation must be effected, by which the pure is setfreefrom the impure,so that it may at last fully manifest its powers. We desire the surgeon to be versed in this art, without which he does not indeed deserve his name. The preparation of medicaments is of great importance, so that they may be brought to their highest grade of action. God does not will that medicines should ready too easily at hand ; He has created the remedies, but has ruled that they should be prepared by ourselves. The chemical art must not therefore be repudiated by the surgeon. As long as physicians are content with the preparations of the pharmacists, they will never accomplish anything worthy of praise. Furthermore, the alchemists themselves, despite the excellence of their remedies, will find their operations barren until the arts of medicine and chemistry are completely united. - Clm-ur^ia Magnn, Tract II., c. o.

your judgment when you say " Serapion, Mesne, Rhasis, Pliny, Dioscorides, Macer, report about verbena, that it is useful for this or that purpose " ? You cannot prove that what you say is true. What sort of a judgment can even you yourselves think this ? Be yourselves the umpire : Is he not more powerful who is able to prove that true which is within ? And this you cannot do without the aid of Alchemy. Even though you should read and know twice as much as you do, all your knowledge would be of no avail. Let any one read my work, and then how can be have the face to make it a charge against me that I lay these things before you and explain them to you ? You do not reduce to action those powers and virtues which you parade and boast that you possess. Answer me : if the magnet fails to attract, what is the cause of the failure ? If hellebore fails to make you vomit, why is this so ? You know what causes purging and vomiting ; but what are the arcana of healing just now spoken of? In this matter you are the very brother of Ignorance. Tell me in whom confidence should be placed as to the operations and powers of natural things ? In those who have only written about such things without ever having tried or used them, or in those who have put them to the proof, though they may not have written about them ? Is it not a matter of fact that Pliny has proved none of his assertions ? Where, then, is the use of his statements ? What has he heard from the Alchemists ? And if you know nothing of these you can be at best but a travelling quack-doctor.

If, then, it be of such vast importance that Alchemy shall be thoroughly understood in Medicine, the reason of this importance arises from the great latent virtue which resides in natural things, which also can lie open to none, save in so far as they are revealed by Alchemy.* Otherwise, it is just as if one should see a tree in winter and not recognise it, or be ignorant what was in it until summer puts forth, one after another, now branches, now flowers, now fruits, and whatever else appertains to it. So in these matters there is a latent virtue which is occult to men in general. And unless a man learns and makes proof of these things, which can only be done by an Alchemist, just as by the summer, it is not possible that he can investigate the subject in any other way. Now, seeing that the Alchemist thus brings forth what is latent in Nature, you should know that there is one kind of virtue in the twigs, another in the leaves, another in the unripe fruit, and yet another in the fruit when ripe ; and that the difference between these is so palpable that the later fruit of a tree is altogether unlike the earlier, and this not only in form but in virtues. Whence the knowledge should be of such a kind that it shall extend from the first to the last. This is Nature. And since Nature thus manifests herself, so also does the Alchemist when dealing with those matters which Nature defines for

* 1 include Chemla in the circle of medical perfection for many reasons. It supplies true simples, magnalia, arcana, mysteries, virtues, powers, all things which pertain to the science of remedies, much more perfectly than ordinary pharmacy. But you object that alchemy is universally unpopular. I ask for kind words. Other arts also— astronomy and philosophy— are contemned, but are not the more imperfect for <iVK.—Fyng;n:iiln Mcdica. him. For instance, the genestum keeps the process of its own nature in the hand of the Alchemist. So does thyme, with its flower, and the rest. One thing does not contain a single virtue, but several. You see this in flowers. They have not one single colour, and yet they are in one thing, and are themselves one thing ; and every colour is severally graduated to perfection. So is it with the different virtues which are latent in these things. Now the alchemy of colours is so to separate Art and Nature, that this separation shall extend not only to the colours, but to the virtues. As often as a transmutation of colours takes place, so often occurs a transinutation of virtues also. In sulphur, there is yellowness, whiteness, redness, darkness, and blackness. In each colour there is a special power and virtue ; and other substances which possess these same colours have not the same, but different, virtues lying hid in these colours. And there is a latent knowledge of colours just as there are latent colours, and a latent cognition of virtues, as there are latent virtues.

And the manifestation of virtues is the same as in form and colours, where are first the twigs, then the pith, afterwards fronds, flowers, and leaves, then the beginning of fruits, then their mid-period, and, lastly, their full development. If the virtues ripen by a gradual process of this kind, and thus increase, then the indwelling virtues are changed in degrees and in number every day, nay, every minute. For as time and not matter gives its purgative effect to the elder, so that same time confers its powers on other virtues, some in one way, and some in another. As time again assigns styptic powers to the acacias, which do not naturally arise from time, and as is the case with other wild growths, so time also in this case imparts the middle virtues before, the final term. For these signs or intervals must be carefully noted in Alchemy, on account of the knowledge as to the true end of operations, and of the autumnal period by which the time of mature or immature virtue is defined ; and the same is carefully attended to in Medicine. So, also, these ripenings are divided into buds, fronds, flowers, pith, liquids, leaves, fruits ; and in each of these are their own proper beginnings, mid-periods, and ends, divided into three ways or principles, namely, into laxatives, styptics, and arcana. Those things which loosen and constrict are not arcana. And none of these is conducted at once to the final end, but they exist in the primary and middle virtues.

How evident is this illustration in the case of vitriol, which is now everywhere very well known to all, and the virtues whereof are especially patent. Now, I propose in this place not to obscure its virtue, but to unfold and manifest it more widely. First of all, then, vitriol puts forth its laxative virtue, being the chief of all laxatives, and possessing the greatest power for the removal of obstructions. There is not in the body any member, external or internal, which is not penetrated and affected by it. This effect arises from the first time. The second time gives it a constrictive power. As powerfully does it now constrict as in the beginning of the first period it loosened. And still its arcanum is not yet at hand, nor have buds, fronds, and flowers burst forth. If it has sped to fronds, what is more effectual in the

falling sickness ? If it proceeds to flowers, what is more penetrating ? It is like an odour which most readily diffuses itself on all sides. If it issues forth in its fruits, what is more excellent for promoting heat ? And there are many other qualities in it, reckoned by its appropriate periods. At all events, so much we have endeavoured to explain, how the arcana in any one thing separate into many parts, and each part is borne on to its own special period, and that, moreover, the limit of periods in things is an arcanum. So in the first transmutation of tartar ; what excels this arcanum in cases of itch and scab, or other similarly disagreeable affections ? In its second period, what is more effectual for the removal of obstructions— not in the way of a mere laxative ? What, at length, is more powerful in the healing of wounds? Now, it is Alchemy which opens and manifests these qualities. Then, why not raise the foundation of Medicine hereupon ?* Learn from this, at all events, and dismiss these dirty ointment-vending quacks, who do not know this process, but, together with their teachers, are double-dyed asses, and so mad as to presume to think everything of this kind false and impossible. They are so ignorant and experienced that they have not learnt even the beginning of a decoction, and yet health and safety for the sick are to be sought from such men as these.

What else do you find in them but desire for money and thirst for goods ? It is all the same to them whether their medicines do good or harm, whether they remove or increase diseases. Is it not right, then, that ignorance of this kind should be publicly revealed ? I do not adopt this course from any hope that they will imitate me. They will feel no shame on this account ; but rather hatred and envy will so take possession of them that they will persevere in their ignorance. Yet, notwithstanding, whoever wishes to pursue truth alone, will turn aside to my monarchy, and not to any other.

Mark, I beseech you, my readers and hearers, what a wretched and distorted process is adopted in the falling sickness, not so much by the ancients as by those writers who are contemporary with me ; and this to such an extent that they are scarcely able to rescue or to cure a single patient. Do I act unjustly when I despise such writers and such teachers, who demand, as a matter of right, that people should use their remedies, though they are not of the smallest power ? On the other hand, if any one investigates another method, by which help can be given to patients, they call him a vagabond, a chatterer, and a fool. What is rather true is that their ptescriptions, like their diagnoses in the case of falling sickness and other diseases, are mere lies. This is proved by results. The patients themselves bear witness to it, while the nature of thmgs cries out and proves the foundation on which Medicine must be built up. No one disease can they heal by a well considered and consistent system of * If, therefore, it be the part of the physician to cure, and the foundation must be taken from the four things named above, how sh^^U he conclude? By alchemy alone. What is alchemy ? That which prepares Medicine, making a pure and precious remedy, exhibiting it perfect and entire, whereby the knowledge of the physician is completed. If such then be Medicine, and the knowledge of the physician must be acquired in this manner, how, I say, dare those square and knotty doctors and masters, without forfeiting their honour, blame me because I do not deal with trifles, but with truth itself, that I may establish science more fundamentally and exactly, for they adhere to their antiquity. — Fragmenta Medica,

Medicine, since God does not call and choose such uncertain and erratic men to be physicians, but rather well assured and experienced men. If He supplies an assured and experienced husbandman or quarryman, much more will He give a physician who is certain about his art and confirmed in its practice, since on him rests more responsibility than on all other men. But they call the foundation itself doubtful, and place it in the hand of God. So, then, the hand of God is stretched like a veil over their imposture and ignorance ; and they justify themselves, but accuse God, when they say that their art, indeed, is perfect, but that God interrupts it and stands in its way. What is impiety and imposture, if not this ? But see by what unshaken argument I will establish Alchemy as the foundation of Medicine. I base it on this : that the most severe of all diseases, such as apoplexy, paralysis, lethargy, the falling sickness, mania, frenzy, melancholia or gloom, and other similar ones, can be cured by no concoctions of the ointment-sellers. As meat cannot be boiled with snow, so much less can this kind of medicine be brought to any successful issue by the art of the drug compounders. For as the magistery of each several substance is that to which it specially looks, so it should be noted of these diseases that they have particular arcana. Hence, they require special preparations.